Modern Web standards try as much as possible to separate what the text says (its content) from how it looks (its appearance or presentation). For that reason, this chapter shows you how to treat your text more like an outline, focusing on the sequence and relative importance of different parts of your information.

This chapter is from the book

On the surface, working with text in Expression Web is very much like using any word processing program. Unlike with word processing, however, you should not format your Web text (bold, italic, font size, and so on) as you enter it. It’s true that in the early days of the Web, you often applied font and style tags in the same as-you-worked fashion as word processing. Modern Web standards, however, try as much as possible to separate what the text says (its content) from how it looks (its appearance or presentation).

That’s in part because a Web page may be read on a cell phone screen or a page-sized monitor. By separating content from presentation, it’s much easier to create codes that allow your Web pages to automatically adjust to whatever reads them (including text-to-speech programs for the visually impaired).

Think instead of your text and headings as you would an outline. Outlines seldom look fancy. Instead, they focus on the sequence and relative importance of different parts of your information by using headings and indents. For that reason, this chapter shows you how to treat your text more like an outline. As for the business of formatting the appearance of your text, see “Creating Styles with CSS” on page 123.

Entering and Selecting Text

The standard techniques you use in text-editing programs—entering text, selecting, moving, cutting, and copying—work similarly in Expression Web.

To enter text on a Web page:

Open the Web page in which you want to work, and click where you want to enter text.

A blinking vertical bar marks the text insertion spot.

Start typing, and the text appears at the insertion spot (Figure 4.1).

Figure 4.1 To enter text on a Web page, start typing and the text appears at the insertion spot.

TIP

Notice in the code window that Expression Web automatically places the text inside an HTML paragraph tag (<p> </p>) (Figure 4.1). Called a container, this tag offers a stripped-down example of how HTML works: An opening tag marks (declares) the start of a particular code effect, and a closing tags marks where it ends. As you dive deeper into Expression Web, you’ll see how all HTML and CSS coding works the same way.

To select text on a page:

Do one of the following:

Click and drag through the text you want to select.

Double-click a word to select it.

Triple-click anywhere in a paragraph to select it.

Click at the beginning (or end) of the text you want to select, and press (or ) until you’ve selected all the desired text.

Move your cursor to the left end of a line, and when it becomes an arrow, click to select the entire line.

Move your cursor to the left end of a line, and when it becomes an arrow, double-click to select the entire paragraph.